Hillman Foundation Announces New Innovations in Care Program

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 18, 2014) - The Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation today announced a new Hillman Innovations in Care Program, which will commit at least $3 million during the next five years to develop and disseminate new models of health care delivery that are rooted in nursing's holistic approach to care.

Starting in November 2014, the Foundation will make two grants annually up to a maximum of $600,000. These awards will explicitly target innovations that provide care to vulnerable populations, a category that includes the economically disadvantaged, racial and ethnic minorities, and other groups that encounter barriers to accessing quality healthcare services. A Request for Proposals will be released in March, with full proposals due in July.

"Vulnerable populations often lie beyond the reach or economic interest of much of the traditional healthcare system," said Ahrin Mishan, Executive Director of the Hillman Foundation. "Historically, nursing driven innovations have had an enormous impact in these communities and we strive to build on this tradition by bringing effective new models to scale."

"The Hillman Innovations in Care Program should provide a powerful boost to promising but under-recognized models of care delivery," said Mary Naylor, Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, who has already received support from the Foundation for her nurse-led Transitional Care Model. "It is these kinds of innovations that have the potential to help our health care system to achieve several key outcomes -- better health, higher patient and caregiver satisfaction, and lower costs."

Researchers and program developers interested in the Hillman Innovations in Care Program should contact Judith Woodruff at jwoodruff@rahf.org.

A New Direction for the Hillman Foundation

The Hillman Innovations in Care Program marks another important expansion of the foundation's grantmaking. For more than 20 years, the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation (formerly the Alex Hillman Family Foundation) has supported the Hillman Scholars Program, an undergraduate scholarship program that carries with it a commitment to clinical practice in New York City. To date, more than 1,500 nurses have participated in the program. Last year, the Foundation, launched the Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation, which builds on and broadens the Foundation's scholarship programs, with a particular emphasis on developing nurse researchers able to transform healthcare systems and practices.

The Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation mission is to improve the lives of patients and their families through nursing-driven innovation. To this end, the Foundation cultivates nurse leaders, supports nursing research, and disseminates new models of care that are critical to making the U.S. healthcare system more patient-centered, accessible, equitable, and affordable. The foundation's goal is to leverage the power of nursing's unique knowledge to ensure that the healthcare system can deliver the high-quality care patients need and deserve.